Likely hotel price glitch - will they honor it?

[bcla]

THEN...the next day the owner of the hotel responds to the review accusing me of lying and swearing at her! I cannot believe a company can get away with this and am filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. As far as I know, a confirmed rate means a hotel confirmed with the customer that they will honor the rate they booked at. Apparently, NOT TRUE a all with Best Western.

Needless to say, we will NEVER stay in a Best Western again. I have NEVER had a problem with Marriott, Starwood, Wyndham, etc.

It's a little bit harsh to swear off an entire brand based on how one franchisee handled your situation. The situation I mentioned earlier was at a Marriott brand.

However, from a legal standpoint a hotel can cancel your reservation at any time and for any reason. It sounds a little bit harsh, but that's the legal reality.

 

[justgrace]

I'm crossing my fingers for you!! I don't know why they wouldn't honor it. What if you didn't know how much it usually runs and booked it for $50 thinking it was the usual price? They shouldn't be able to say when you go for check in, "Well that was a glitch so you're going to have to pay $150 extra per night..." It wouldn't be your fault that you booked a room with a glitch, so they shouldn't charge you extra because of a mistake on their part.

If they don't honor it, this sounds like an interesting Judge Judy case!

 

[tvguy]

Hope it is not a Best Western. Back in March, I booked the Best Western Siesta Key for 10 nights in Feb. of 2016 at a rate of like $119 a night for a king size studio. That was 11 months in advance. I inputted my credit card number and received a confirmation email.

In August, I get a phone call from the hotel telling me that room doesn't exist. If I want to stay there, I need to rebook it at the current rate which was now over $250 a night! They then tried to tell me the room won't sleep four. I said that was fine there are only three of us but on their website it clearly shows the room existing and sleeping four people! They then tell me they are cancelling the reservation.

I call the 800 number for customer service who are very nice and tell me since it is confirmed there shouldn't be a problem, but they would check and call me back. Two days later they call and tell me since all Best Westerns are privately owned, the owner has decided to not honor the rate. I was flabbergasted. That means any hotel could do this to anyone. They said if I want to find another hotel they will pay the difference in rate between $119 and whatever the current rate is. I declined and told them I would be posting this on tripadvisor and yelp...which I did.

THEN...the next day the owner of the hotel responds to the review accusing me of lying and swearing at her! I cannot believe a company can get away with this and am filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. As far as I know, a confirmed rate means a hotel confirmed with the customer that they will honor the rate they booked at. Apparently, NOT TRUE a all with Best Western.

Needless to say, we will NEVER stay in a Best Western again. I have NEVER had a problem with Marriott, Starwood, Wyndham, etc.

OP, for you sake I hope it is another chain than Best Western.

For anyone interested, you can see my reviews on yelp and tripadvisor.

Hope this helps someone else out.

That may be enough for him to get dropped by Best Western.

 

[Judique]

It's a little bit harsh to swear off an entire brand based on how one franchisee handled your situation. The situation I mentioned earlier was at a Marriott brand.

However, from a legal standpoint a hotel can cancel your reservation at any time and for any reason. It sounds a little bit harsh, but that's the legal reality.

Wait til it happens to you and see how you feel then.

Best Western denied us a room that we had prepaid for at 11:30pm during a bad thunder and rain storm in North Carolina summer of 2013. We had left after work on our way to Hilton Head with the idea of a short drive to Disney Resort the next morning.

The desk clerk said she couldn't check us in despite the fact I had my receipt and reservation details in my hand. The power was off. We left and drove to a WaWa or Sheetz nearby to park and start calling other chains nearby for a room. Saw the hotel lights come back on and returned to the Best Western.

Still wouldn't give us a room that we had already paid for - prepaid rate. Said she didn't know how to do it since the power had been off.

An hour and a half later we found a room that we had to pay more for. Best Western's CS was horrible when I talked to them. They eventually refunded us.

We will NEVER set foot in a Best Western brand again. My review is online as well.

 

[Tozzie]

Hope it is not a Best Western. Back in March, I booked the Best Western Siesta Key for 10 nights in Feb. of 2016 at a rate of like $119 a night for a king size studio. That was 11 months in advance. I inputted my credit card number and received a confirmation email.

In August, I get a phone call from the hotel telling me that room doesn't exist. If I want to stay there, I need to rebook it at the current rate which was now over $250 a night! They then tried to tell me the room won't sleep four. I said that was fine there are only three of us but on their website it clearly shows the room existing and sleeping four people! They then tell me they are cancelling the reservation.

I call the 800 number for customer service who are very nice and tell me since it is confirmed there shouldn't be a problem, but they would check and call me back. Two days later they call and tell me since all Best Westerns are privately owned, the owner has decided to not honor the rate. I was flabbergasted. That means any hotel could do this to anyone. They said if I want to find another hotel they will pay the difference in rate between $119 and whatever the current rate is. I declined and told them I would be posting this on tripadvisor and yelp...which I did.

THEN...the next day the owner of the hotel responds to the review accusing me of lying and swearing at her! I cannot believe a company can get away with this and am filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. As far as I know, a confirmed rate means a hotel confirmed with the customer that they will honor the rate they booked at. Apparently, NOT TRUE a all with Best Western.

Needless to say, we will NEVER stay in a Best Western again. I have NEVER had a problem with Marriott, Starwood, Wyndham, etc.

OP, for you sake I hope it is another best western

For anyone interested, you can see my reviews on yelp and tripadvisor.

Hope this helps someone else out.

Filing a complaint with the BBB is worth the paper it is written on, they have no legal authority to do anything and business's pay money to belong to it so filing a complaint means very little. I also seem to remember a court ruling regarding airlines who wouldn't honor super low , can't be possible airfare and the courts ruled in favor of the airline

 

[bcla]

Wait til it happens to you and see how you feel then.

Best Western denied us a room that we had prepaid for at 11:30pm during a bad thunder and rain storm in North Carolina summer of 2013. We had left after work on our way to Hilton Head with the idea of a short drive to Disney Resort the next morning.

The desk clerk said she couldn't check us in despite the fact I had my receipt and reservation details in my hand. The power was off. We left and drove to a WaWa or Sheetz nearby to park and start calling other chains nearby for a room. Saw the hotel lights come back on and returned to the Best Western.

Still wouldn't give us a room that we had already paid for - prepaid rate. Said she didn't know how to do it since the power had been off.

An hour and a half later we found a room that we had to pay more for. Best Western's CS was horrible when I talked to them. They eventually refunded us.

We will NEVER set foot in a Best Western brand again. My review is online as well.

I might swear off a particular location, but BW locations are all independent operators. I've had some pretty bad experiences at some hotels, but I don't believe in guilt by association. It could get to the point where your options are near zero just because one franchisee (or just one employee) screwed up and you swore off the entire brand.

 

[HeatherC]

I might swear off a particular location, but BW locations are all independent operators. I've had some pretty bad experiences at some hotels, but I don't believe in guilt by association. It could get to the point where your options are near zero just because one franchisee (or just one employee) screwed up and you swore off the entire brand.

I understand what you are saying. But, if they are operating under the Best Western brand and the parent company lets them treat potential customers with shady business practices, that is enough for me to never give another cent of my hard earned money to Best Western.

 

[nkereina]

Not entirely the same situation but a few years back, I had reserved two hotel rooms at a popular hotel chain for my family. I reserved them in March for dates in late May over my college graduation weekend. The hotel was one of many within a mile radius of the college campus. About 4 weeks prior to the graduation, the hotel called me and said they had imposed a two-night minimum over that weekend (since its a busy weekend) and since we only had one night booked, we either needed to cancel or extend it to two nights. I stood my ground and talked to the manager and was able to have them honor it, and we were able to stay one night. It wasn't my fault they waited so long to implement the minimum stay, and its not your fault their system MAY have a glitch in the pricing. Speak up and definitely fight for it if you have to!

 

[JasonDeyoung30]

I use to work for a hotel chain and as long as you have a confirmation showing what you booked, we always honored it. We had this actually happen more than you'd expect it to. Could be one of a million things. Just keep your confirmation they sent you. They can check the history of the reservation in their system as well to verify everything. Enjoy your trip

 

[Judique]

I might swear off a particular location, but BW locations are all independent operators. I've had some pretty bad experiences at some hotels, but I don't believe in guilt by association. It could get to the point where your options are near zero just because one franchisee (or just one employee) screwed up and you swore off the entire brand.

I stay in hotels about 40 nights per year.

This is the first one I've ever decided to avoid. I'm now a senior, and I don't have a history of swearing off hotels.

I doubt if my options will ever get close to zero. But Best Western will get zero of my patronage and I will tell my story.

 

[sonnyjane]

No, not a Best Western check-in is Wednesday afternoon so I'll be sure to let you know the outcome!

 

[Tiffylv]

.

 

[bcla]

I understand what you are saying. But, if they are operating under the Best Western brand and the parent company lets them treat potential customers with shady business practices, that is enough for me to never give another cent of my hard earned money to Best Western.

I just think the business world is a little more nuanced than that. In any case, "Best Western" isn't actually a hotel operator. Technically it's not even a "parent company". I know a lot of BW locations that use a combination of the international brand plus a local name that they could revert to if they ever separated from the brand. Hilton or Marriott have company-owned locations and franchises to independent operators. Best Western is actually a nonprofit member collective. They have acknowledged that sometimes it's difficult to maintain a steady quality. I've stayed at a few, and some were cheap motels, some better quality motels, and some even pretty nice hotels. My impression is that it's at the lower end of the quality scale, but often a good value depending on location. My preference is to look for reviews of individual locations

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=6417117

Unlike other chains, Best Western works as a non-profit operation, collecting fees upfront for licensing the brand. Each owner is considered a member of the association and independently operates the hotel. Over the years, the uniquely decentralized model of operations has bred varying standards and inconsistent quality throughout the system, an operational challenge that Kong and its board have tried to tackle in recent years.
​

They are officially chartered as a nonprofit for the benefit of their for-profit members.

http://www.bestwesterndevelopers.com/files/Best Western Bylaws & Articles - February 2015.pdf

ARTICLE V
The Corporation shall be a member nonprofit corporation.

ARTICLE VI
There shall be no capital stock issued by this nonprofit Corporation. Memberships in the Corporation shall not be assigned except in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the Bylaws and none of the members of the Corporation shall receive pecuniary gain or profit. In the event of the dissolution of this Corporation after adequately taking care of all debts and obligations, any remaining assets of the Corporation shall be distributed to a nonprofit educational or charitable organization.



​

 

[HeatherC]

BCLA...To the average consumer the name Best Western means the same thing to them as Marriott, Hilton, etc.. Most people assume that when you book a hotel with a Best Western name, it is part of a "chain" that is owned by a "parent company" . You may be "in the know" in regards to the hotel business, but the average consumer just wants to book a hotel and have their rate and reservation honored.

Based on several of the posters in this thread, some hotels...not all....operating under the Best Western name seem to operate with no regard to customer satisfaction or what I and other posters, apparently, perceive to be fair business practices.

Luckily, there is a lot of competition in the hotel marketplace so that I have plenty of other choices to choose to give my money too. between my own personal experience and what I hear from others, Best Western will never get anymore of our travel dollars.

 

[cabanafrau]

OP, I hope you get the room you've reserved at the steal of a deal. IMO it's only fair. Hotels have no problem taking payment for a room you need to cancel if you haven't cancelled within the cancellation window, so I think they need to eat their mistakes too. -- particularly if they're going to operate under a large scale corporate umbrella, no matter the minutiae of the terms of that deal. If slapping that corporate name and logo on their sign means zero benefit to the customer it doesn't belong there.

I also find the notion that the reservation you make, and guarantee with your credit card, doesn't guarantee you the room type that you've booked. It's not like rooms are a product that goes missing like something you're ordering from Amazon. Unless that room has become unexpectedly damaged, I think the hotel should be required to back up their guarantee if they require a customer's credit card to guarantee our end of the deal.

I don't think I've been in a Best Western since I was a kid, but after reading this thread I doubt I would ever consider it now.

 

[bgirldeb]

I don't think I've been in a Best Western since I was a kid, but after reading this thread I doubt I would ever consider it now.

Same here.

 

[Judique]

OP, I hope you get the room you've reserved at the steal of a deal. IMO it's only fair. Hotels have no problem taking payment for a room you need to cancel if you haven't cancelled within the cancellation window, so I think they need to eat their mistakes too. -- particularly if they're going to operate under a large scale corporate umbrella, no matter the minutiae of the terms of that deal. If slapping that corporate name and logo on their sign means zero benefit to the customer it doesn't belong there.

I also find the notion that the reservation you make, and guarantee with your credit card, doesn't guarantee you the room type that you've booked. It's not like rooms are a product that goes missing like something you're ordering from Amazon. Unless that room has become unexpectedly damaged, I think the hotel should be required to back up their guarantee if they require a customer's credit card to guarantee our end of the deal.

I don't think I've been in a Best Western since I was a kid, but after reading this thread I doubt I would ever consider it now.

Cabanafrau - I must note that even though I am a dissatisfied former customer of BW, I have recently had 2 instances where I've been treated very well by other chains in the case of the cancellation window. One was Country Inn and Suites, where I was on the road and got very tired and I was unable to safely continue to my destination. They rebooked me at a closer hotel and did not charge me any fee. This past July I had booked rooms online and found I had booked the wrong night in a noncancellable room with Holiday Inn Express. They switched it for me. Both my problems and they took care of me. Good customer service. They'll continue to get my business.

Best Western left me out in a thunderstorm and then didn't want to process a refund.

I also want to comment on being 'walked'. Where you get there and they are oversold and they 'walk' you somewhere else. I've been walked a couple times and it always ends up as a complimentary room. This has usually been in cities and convention type or business hotels.

 

[kamik86]

Honestly now knowing that best western isn't a parent company almost makes me want to avoid them anywhere I haven't already stayed or know someone that stayed there and can vouch for it. I wouldn't want the roulette of knowing that because they aren't even a chain where the parent company has some pull over the franchise that I'm basically staying at a local hotel with no knowledge of the quality I might get.

 

[bcla]

Honestly now knowing that best western isn't a parent company almost makes me want to avoid them anywhere I haven't already stayed or know someone that stayed there and can vouch for it. I wouldn't want the roulette of knowing that because they aren't even a chain where the parent company has some pull over the franchise that I'm basically staying at a local hotel with no knowledge of the quality I might get.

I think they do have some pull. The bylaws say locations are subject to quality inspections and may even have their membership revoked by the board. It may be a slow process however.

Yeah I get that some people are angry about the way they were treated. However, in a budget class I tend to look for individual reviews. It's a lot easier to find those compared to 20 years ago. For me, a brand name is more like a convenient way to compare properties. Then I'll look up individual locations before proceeding.

 

[PigletsPal2]

I got an e-mail from DD#2's favorite hotel in London offering four nights for the price of three. I usually give her hotel rewards points to pay for this hotel, but I didn't have enough this time. She could afford to pay for three nights herself, but not four ($290 a night). The e-mail didn't give any dates for when the offer was valid (she's going at Thanksgiving and was afraid the 4 for 3 offer would be over by then), so I contacted the hotel and they confirmed that she could have the 4 for 3 rate at Thanksgiving. They gave her a code to reference when she makes her reservation, the manager signed the e-mail, and they advised her to bring the e-mails with her when she checks in.

This is an IHG hotel.

Queen Colleen